Jump directly to the content
DONE ROAMING

SNP cabinet minister Michael Matheson racks up £11k roaming charges on iPad in Morocco

A BUNGLING SNP cabinet minister racked up £11k roaming charges in Morocco after failing to switch to a new parly service provider, it has emerged.

Michael Matheson travelled to the North African nation for a week-long holiday in January this year.

Michael Matheson racked up £11k in roaming charges during a trip to Morocco
1
Michael Matheson racked up £11k in roaming charges during a trip to MoroccoCredit: Alamy

The MSP for Falkirk West took his parliamentary iPad with him on the trip but it had not yet been switched over to a new contract from a previous mobile provider.

It meant that Mr Matheson, who was Transport Secretary at the time, racked up a huge bill for taxpayers.

The details only came to light after a claim of £3,000 appeared in the latest round of MSPs' expenses published in recent days.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament said: “Substantial roaming charges were incurred by Mr Matheson on his parliamentary iPad while in Morocco at the start of this year.

read more in politics

“As the Member was still using the Parliament’s previous mobile provider, and hadn’t yet switched to our present contract, he incurred significant data fees over and above its ‘rest of the world’ tariff rate.

“The Parliament challenged the company over the scale of the data fees – which totalled £10,935.74 - and over the late warning to the rising cost, but the company declined to meet or waive any of the charges.

“On the basis that the Member has assured the Parliament that these costs were incurred in relation to parliamentary business and not for personal or government use, we agreed that Mr Matheson would contribute £3,000 from his office cost provision and the remainder would be paid centrally by the Parliament.”

Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said: “It’s absolutely scandalous that taxpayers are picking up an enormous tab for Michael Matheson’s mistake.

“Even if we are to believe that he racked up this bill doing parliamentary and constituency work on a festive holiday in Morocco, the onus was on him to connect to the WiFi where he was staying or check with the network provider to avoid brutal roaming charges.

“At a time when Scottish families are hard pressed, this is a scandal and demonstrates the SNP’s totally cavalier attitude to public money.

“The £120,00-a-year SNP health secretary should do the decent thing and repay this money out of his own pocket.”

An SNP spokesman said: “This was a legitimate parliamentary expense to cover constituency work while overseas. Mr Matheson was not aware of the problem with his device at the time, which has since been resolved.”

Topics